Fish out of Water - Zac Feaunati
Strathmore lad Isaac Feaunati follows up an outstanding professional rugby career with… appearing in the Clint Eastwood movie Invictus. | By Ben Christie
The former Saint Patrick’s College Kilbirnie pupil, more commonly known as Zack, thought his glory days were behind him when he hung up his professional rugby boots in 2008. And what a rugby career it was. , Zac played for the Wellington Lions 22 times between 1994 and 1997, before a season with the Crusaders in 1997.
Zac then left New Zealand for England and played for 10 years in the Guinness Premiership.
He also had a 14-match international career for Manu Samoa, playing against the All Blacks and in the 1999 World Cup.
After playing the last of his 131 games for Bath in 2008, Zac retired to take up a position as Head of Rugby at Bishop Vesey’s Grammar School in Birmingham.
He was settling into his new life when he received a phone call from a woman at the Rugby Players’ Association, asking if he wanted to audition for the role of Jonah Lomu in a Clint Eastwood movie.
“When I first I heard the suggestion, I thought it was a prank. , But when the RPA called up, I felt that after rugby had given me so much, the least I could do was turn up to the audition!”
After performing the All Blacks’ haka ‘Ka Mate’ before a high-powered casting agent, Zac was sitting on the tube on the way home thinking, “Well, that was that.”
“I probably got half the words and actions wrong, and I didn’t think anything would come of it. But four days later, I got a call saying Clint was making up his mind tonight… and I was still in the running!”
The next day, Zac got the call. Clint Eastwood wanted him to play Jonah in his movie.
“It was surreal. I just sat there in silence while my wife jumped up and down, and I’ve been talking about the movie every day since!”
Zac spent six weeks in South Africa for the shoot.
After three days of settling in,he was invited to meet the rest of the cast for breakfast, including the stars of Invictus, Matt Damon (Françcois Pienaar) and Morgan Freeman (Nelson Mandela).
After initially being a little star- struck, Zac says he got to know the two actors and was impressed by their humility.
“We ended up spending a lot of time together on the shoot. There were poker nights, and we just hung out. Both of them were really down to earth.”
Then the day came to meet the man himself, – the High Plains Drifter,… Dirty Harry, – director Clint Eastwood.
“It was just weird at first. Here he was. , Clint Eastwood,. shaking my hand and telling me how happy he was to have me on board in that gravely voice of his. It’s not a moment I’ll quickly forget.”
After shooting had wrapped up, Zac joined the publicity road show, getting a taste of the red carpet as he attended premieres in South Africa, London and Los Angeles.
“It was madness. Ten minutes of standing amongst the camera flashes; people screaming your name. Completely surreal.”
However, Zac says things got really weird at the Los Angeles premiere. He was sitting there flanked by Clint, Matt and Morgan, when a gentleman behind him tapped his shoulder.
“I turned around and there were Brad and Angelina. Brad goes, ‘Great performance’.’ , I was like, ‘What! Me?!"
But Zac says his proudest moment was taking the two eldest of his four daughters along to see the movie.
“They were very excited and proud,. yelling, ‘There you are, Dad!. That was a great moment for me.”’
Zac says that while some advertising opportunities have come his way since the movie was released, he’s keeping his day job.
The kid from Strathmore says it was never his dream to be in the movies. “No, I used to dream about getting in to see a movie! “…and now I’m in one!!”